Dog friendly

Having a vacation home on wheels means you can change your plans whenever you want. After a few days in WV we decided to head back to NC to cut out return trip home distance and time. I don’t know how many times we have driven by Pilot Mountain and never stopped, so why not check it out now!

One of the best parts of Pilot Mountain is that you can drive nearly to the top of it. Just a short walk to the lookout and only a mile walk if you want to go to the summit. This is our kind of morning walk!

Mount Airy is the home of Andy Griffith and holds a Mayberry Festival that we missed by a week. Passing on the highway we saw a RV campground and decided to give it a try. Now so far we have been “park snobs” thinking that RV parks were cheating. Turns out, we do like them! For one, this was our first cable hook up and the MLB playoffs were kicking off, so we created our own outdoor viewing setup which cracked up our neighbors.

We also realized that Hanging Rock was nearby, so why not give it a try. We checked in at the front visitors center and found out they also had a series of waterfall hikes you could take to earn a badge. Now we are motivated! 😛

*Disclaimer: Hanging Rock trail is marked as “moderate” which is a step above easy. We learned the hard way moderate is not as simple as it seems! Sure, I suppose it is just us being out of shape, but our motivation was killed after this hike. We did make it to the top and it was worth it, but we now know that “moderate” is not as close to “easy” as we thought!

Dodger had no problem with the trail; part mountain goat!

We made it!!

We still wanted to see the waterfalls but decided to pick the easiest trails since the rain was making the trails a mess and we realized we were not as prepared for long hikes as we hoped.

Northwest North Carolina is beautiful and has much to see and explore. There are more trails to see and explore and I’m sure we will be back soon, after we are well rested.